The Mortality Question

Imagine living life as a clone with a sole purpose: donating your organs. Besides knowing the details of your impending death, your life would entail an ordinary human experience. Would you choose to live this life?

For some, knowing the details of their future death is reassuring, as it fills the daunting void of the unknown. Personally, however, I would prefer to live not knowing when and how I was going to die. I think that living my life not knowing how it will end enables me to be happier. If I knew how my life would end, I would become preoccupied with my death and these thoughts would interfere with my ability to live my life to its fullest. 

Regardless of whether or not I was a human, I would want to live for as long as possible. I believe that the drive I experience is not unique to humans; in fact, most humans, clones, and machines with artificial intelligence have deeply rooted desires to prolong their lives. Examples found in modern literature and film, like Never Let Me Go and Ex Machina illustrate this idea.

Kathy and Tommy, the main characters in Never Let Me Go
Photo Credit: Park Circus

Ava from Ex Machina
Photo Credit: Variety

Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go forces readers to think about the inevitability of mortality. Unlike most humans, the students of Hailsham in Never Let Me Go have predetermined fates; that is, they were cloned to serve as organ donors. As children, the students at Hailsham were kept from understanding their true purpose. Kathy, the protagonist, and her fellow classmates only become aware of the harsh reality of their lives during their final years at Hailsham, when a guardian tells them that:

“Your lives are set out for you. You'll become adults, then before you're old, before you're even middle-aged, you'll start to donate your vital organs. That’s what each of you was created to do” (Ishiguro 81). 

Strangely, most of the Hailsham students passively accept their fates, becoming “donors” and “carers” rather than trying to rebel and prolong their lives. Perhaps this is because the students’ certainty of their deaths gives them a sense of closure. I believe that if we as humans were given specific details regarding our future deaths, and these circumstances were inevitable, we would eventually come to accept it, as most of the clones do in Never Let Me Go. Unlike the other clones, though, Kathy and Tommy seek to overcome their predestined fates. When Kathy and Tommy hear of rumors regarding “deferrals”, they quickly become absorbed in the pursuit of postponing their deaths. Tommy, desperately trying to salvage the time he spent at Hailsham creating worthless art, begins making intricate drawings of animals. He hopes Madame will deem his work worthy of her “gallery”, and then decide that his and Kathy’s work will prove them to be compatible enough to be granted a “deferral”. Cathy, who has already ensured a lengthened life in comparison to her peers as a “carer”, continues to put effort into her job, hoping to be rewarded with the gift of time.

Kathy and Tommy both cling to the hope of a “deferral” for as long as possible because they want to extend the duration of their lives. Even after they learn from Miss Emily that “deferrals” do not exist, they doubt her, as they do not want to confront the fear associated with their impending deaths. Tommy begins to have fears regarding unspecified aspects of his death only after he and Kathy have finally accepted their fates: “You know why it is, Kathy, why everyone worries so much about the fourth? It’s because they’re not sure they’ll really complete. If you knew for certain you’d complete, it would be easier” (279). Tommy is clearly apprehensive about his fourth donation because there is no guarantee he will die. 

Tommy Screaming

Tommy finally realizes that it is impossible to prolong his life.

Video Credit: YouTube

In contrast to most of the clones in Never Let Me Go, many humans have an inherent fear of death because aspects of it remain unknown. These ideas lead me to believe that humans do not fear death itself, rather, they fear the unknown. Because most humans prefer to think as little as possible about the uncertainties of death, they try to lengthen their lives in order to push the idea of death into the future. 

Humans cope with their fear of dying by seeking medical treatment when necessary, even when it may put others at risk. Ishiguro’s work calls attention to the ethics of self-preservation and human greed. Within the novel, we learn that humans created the clones of Hailsham in order to harvest their organs for their own benefit, but prefer to keep the ugly, immoral truths regarding this process hidden away.

“For a long time, people preferred to believe these organs appeared from nowhere, or at most that they grew in a kind of vacuum” (262). 

Like Tommy and Kathy in Never Let Me Go, Ava, the robot with artificial intelligence in the film Ex Machina tries to extend the duration of her life by devising a plan to escape the compound where the film takes place. Throughout Garland's film, Ava and Caleb undergo various trials that are closely monitored and manipulated by Nathan, the multimillionaire scientist, and inventor of Ava. Eventually, Ava completely gains Caleb’s trust. 

During Session 5 of the film, Ava questions Caleb about what will happen to her if she fails to pass the “Turing Test”. She even goes as far as asking Caleb if she will be “switched off” if Nathan is dissatisfied with her functioning. These questions highlight Ava’s sentience and fear of the unknown, as she is desperate to get a conclusive answer regarding her fate from Caleb. When Caleb fails to give Ava a definitive answer, she becomes alarmed. Ava’s response suggests that fear is instilled within her because certain aspects of her impending death remain unknown. 

Ava: Session 5

Video Credit: Youtube

As viewers, we learn that Ava’s consciousness has led her to fear her undetermined fate and thus, motivated her to put a plan into place to prolong her life. Ava manipulates Caleb into trusting her and uses her relationship with him to escape Nathan’s control. In the final scenes of Ex Machina, when, to ensure her survival, Ava kills Nathan and traps Caleb in the compound, she is displaying a fundamental, human-like need to attempt to lengthen her life. 

From my perspective, Nathan’s brilliance, which leads to his own demise is almost ironic. Nathan managed to create a robot with consciousness, only to fail to account for its human-like fear of death and the unknown, a fear, that Nathan (like all humans) shares. 

Examples like Never Let Me Go and Ex Machina lead me to deduce that humans, clones, and machines can each grapple with mortality. Certain clones and machines, like Kathy and Tommy in Ishiguro’s novel and Ava in Ex Machina, can come to define their own experiences as indistinguishable from humans, especially when facing death. The experiences of the characters within these works support the proposition that a fundamental aspect of the “human experience” is self-preservation.